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The number of logical jumps that David had to make once Summer had revealed her reasoning for needing to go shopping was rather large, having become so used to adulthood, he didn't even understand her thought train at first. It was undoubtedly what caused his mouth to open and close without any words leaving and created the confused, questioning, strange look on his face. He'd seen the number of boxes labeled 'clothes' that had entered his loft apartment, hell he'd carried half of them, there was no possible way Summer had run out of clothes this fast in his mind. For a moment, and what tripped him up even longer, he considered the often-used trope in romcom's and drama TV that many of his dates insisted on watching about women always needing a specific outfit for specific purposes, but even that was grasping at straws once Summer fully admitted to everything just being dirty.
Naturally, David's eyes bounced from Summer's slightly accusatory face to the small but efficient closet located next to the bathroom where his washing machine and dryer combination were stacked. His memory raced through the previous week, and he quickly realized that other than his own consistent schedule he'd not once heard or seen the machines being used. That wasn't concrete evidence since there were plenty of times, long stretches of which he was not present, so he'd just assumed Summer had cleaned her clothes while he was at work. But a sinking feeling appeared in his gut as he took a sip of his Yeti, the answer was obvious, but how had Marie never taught her only child to accomplish such a basic task? David had assumed a lot about their relationship, and so far, he'd been proven mostly about how strict Summer's overbearing mother was, but not teaching her how to adult seemed completely out of place.
"So... can I go, or...?"
Immediately, David winced ever so slightly, he'd tried to avoid these situations from the beginning; trying to break Summer of the habit that put him in the position of jailer and warden. He knew what he had to do now, but he also realized that he needed to do it in a way that kept those labels as far away from his name as possible, or at the very least not create a similarity between his style and her mother's or else David knew things would become just as hostile as her previous warzone of a living situation. He frowned now, looking between Summer, her bedroom, the wash closet, and finally at his watch; hoping he needed to get down to the studio as an excuse but unfortunately there was plenty of time to do what needed to be done.
"I need to show you something first," David thought it was best to ignore the questions, but not specifically addressing them he hoped what he was about to do wouldn't be seen as an extension of Marie's control, but something new.
"Come on, let's take a look," His hand raised up almost like he was going for a handshake, which intuitively he knew Summer would start the motion to return, but instead of a gentle shake his powerful hand quickly closed the distance between the two of them and took his delicate housemate's hand in a guiding grasp. He didn't pull hard or sharply, but the force of his grasp was permanent and attached to his mass, which was significantly more than Summer's, so she was forced to follow along the unhurried pace as he guided her towards her bedroom.
Pulling along his niece in all but blood brought back a fleeting moment when Summer, frightened by the darkness of the snake exhibit at the zoo but desperately wanting to see the reptiles, had summoned a load of bravery from the same hold and walked with her uncle into the gloomy darkness. Back then her hands had been much smaller, but just as smooth as they are now. Her grasp had been tight, fear of losing hold of her confidence forcing her tiny fingers to cling to his much larger hand, back in the present there was just the smallest hint of that of that desperation as Summer probably prepared for one of the scoldings her mother was famous for. In both instances David's large thumb brushed against the back of her hand, a small calming influence that the kind older man did unconsciously as he tried to be that pillar of confidence to one of his most favorite people on earth. It continued as they stepped through the threshold of Summer's room and David observed the chaos that was her laundry setup.
"Ah, ok, no big deal, we can fix you right up," David's own confidence was evident in his voice and face, on which his powerful jaw twitched momentarily as he decided to press on quickly and confidently while he had her attention. Using his grasp on Summer for one last movement, he guided her to the edge of her bed and while his free moved to guide her shoulders until she sat on the edge of the bed. "You sit there, and we'll knock this out together, quickly."
Finally releasing his grasp, David swung around and gathered the chaotic hamper up in one smooth motion, continuing his turn and dumping the pile of clothes atop the comforter next to what seemed to be a rather shocked Summer. There were actually three hampers amongst the mess, which had obviously confused the newly graduated young adult, she'd stacked the blue, white, and gray hampers together and piled all her clothes atop them. David quickly separated the three of them on the floor and took a seat on the bed across the pile of clothes from Summer. He quickly scanned the mess, picking out a pair of white socks and holding them up for her to see.
"Whites go in the white basket, colors in the blue, delicates in the gray, delicate mean things with sensitive fabrics like silk or lace, whites are all white clothes since you don't want bleach to make any colors bleed, colors just mean everything else."
With David's help it didn't take long for the clothes to fill up their appropriate hampers, especially since he wasn't being particular about how much effort Summer put in; since this was her first experience, he coached her whenever she had a question and didn't undermine her efforts at all. He thought his help would convince her that this wasn't a demand or request on his part, this was just something that adults did, without really thinking about whether they had to or not, because they did. Once the hampers were full, or rather the bed was empty, he stacked the three hampers together and lifted them up easily, not bothering to provide any other friction points by insisting she carry anything; besides since she'd waited so long the load was rather heavy.
"Okay, follow me."
David led the way to stacked cleaning machines and popped the colors into the washing machine, before stepping to the side, giving Summer a nudge closer to the machine, and sliding behind her so that his chest was pressed into her shoulders and head. His arm slid down to her wrist and lifted her limp hand towards the controls of the machine before giving her a quick overview.
"Here you select whites, colors or delicate," His hand helped hers twist the nob to the appropriate setting, "Then the corresponding fill stations will light up." Again, his hand guided hers to where the detergent loader flashed, popping it open, and reaching her hand to the stacked bottles of detergent, "Just like the hampers, blue cap is washing detergent, and you'll use it for all three types, a full load for colors, half for delicate, and a quarter for whites, but the machine will tell you that. White lid, that's bleach, don't let it get on your skin, for whites only, and delicates get the grey cap, fabric softener, the machine does the rest."
Once the detergent was filled, with Summer holding the bottle and David still guiding her from behind, the last action was him guiding her finger to the start button and standing back. "Not too hard right? Washing clothes? It's a constant in every adult life. Hmm," David made some mental calculations based on the amount of clothes he'd strewn about after one week, and added what the cooler months would bring, "I do my laundry twice a week, it's easier to keep up with it and it makes sure I always have clean clothes of what I want to wear. You should do the same thing, Sunday night so you have everything you want for the school week, and Thursday night or Friday morning, depending on your course schedule, so you have everything you want for the weekend."
Just then David's head finally caught up to how close they'd been this whole time as a pang of unexpected pleasure flashed through his body. The feeling seemed to burst forth from multiple sources, Summer's sweet scent from her shampoo and conditioner, the sensation of his rough hands sliding along her soft arms and backside of her hands, and the gentle pressure between her shoulder blades and chest. It was wholly unexpected, and also came with brief flashes of a few of the delicate pieces of clothing they'd sorted, bikini bottoms and lacy things that at the time had only belonged to a category that David needed to teach Summer how to sort, but now filled his imagination with glimpses of her small body wearing those things. All of it combined into a rushing, pleasant buzz that caused him to take a step or two back, glancing at his watch and beginning to roll down his sleeves to button them; anything to keep him from needing to meet her gaze right at that moment.
Finally, there was nothing left to do, so he glanced up, "So, sounds good?" He asked, as if it had already been settled.
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